Sri Lanka
The English sailor Robert Knox, writing in 1681, described a method of execution by elephant which he had witnessed whilst captive in Sri Lanka. Knox says the elephants he saw had their tusks fitted with “sharp Iron with a socket with three edges”. After impaling the victim’s body with its tusks, the elephant would “then tear it in pieces, and throw it limb from limb”.
Another report from a 19th century traveller described a different method of death by elephant where the tusks weren’t used at all… “placing his foot on the prostrate victim, (he) plucked off his limbs in succession by a sudden movement of his trunk”. So this is a pretty versatile method compared to, say, hanging.
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